A New Kind of Subscription

There are all kinds of subscriptions you can order. If you're like me, you probably have at least one monthly subscription box that comes to your house. I've done Birchbox, LootCrate, Ipsy, and still do Litjoy, and BarkBox. I love getting a box full of mystery products every month or quarter. It's fun and exciting. 

Photo by Curology on Unsplash

There are subscription boxes for everything, including travel, but most are completely unaffordable. As someone who loves travel and travel products and gadgets, but also doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg on items that don't work, are bulky, or poor quality, I've decided that offering my own subscription box, with products I've personally vetted, could be just what fellow budget travelers want. The difference to other subscription boxes: They will be priced less, though there will be a multi-tier system for those that have a bigger budget, and they will be offered quarterly, so you aren't inundated with products.

Partial haul from the last Travel Goods Show I attended

What will be in them? Well, I have the items I want to include in the first introductory box, which should be ready to ship in time for Summer travel. Want to help customize these boxes, so they work for your budget and travel style? If you haven't already taken the survey, I'd love it if you took 2 minutes (or less) to answer a few questions to help me serve you better - even if this isn't something you're interested in at all, because that's helpful to know, too. 

I hope you're as excited about this as I am. If not, that's okay. I'll still be here to keep bringing you my regularly scheduled content and product recommendations.

Do you subscribe to any monthly boxes? If so, let me know which one(s)!

How To Travel More Freely

What if I want woolly socks?

What if I want to wear a Hawaiian shirt?

What if I need extra boots?

What if I need more pajamas?

What if I'm asked to a gala and I don't have a tuxedo?

What if I go sailing and don't have the proper shoes?

What if I want to go spelunking and I don't have ropes?

Will people know where I'm from? Better pack four or five more Oregon shirts!

Yes, some of these questions are totally ridiculous, but if you're an overpacker, it might be hard to figure out which ones. This post was really inspired by my husband who was coming up with outrageous reasons one would need to have a bag they could fit into if they weren't moving to a new country. Every time I go to the airport, I tend to see at least one or two ladies (and sometimes guys) hauling a bag so large that if it didn't have wheels, they wouldn't have gotten it out of the house. It always makes me wonder what on Earth they could possibly have in there and need for a normal vacation. 

This is by far not the largest bag I've seen people bring to Vegas in the middle of summer.

Eric calls it overpacking due to a fear-based lifestyle. All those 'what-ifs' up there were his (joking) way of identifying an overpacker's train of thought before traveling and when they purchase said huge suitcase. I used to be a chronic overpacker, but I never had a suitcase that I could live in. So, what causes people to pack so much they need such a large bag? Are they uncomfortable with leaving home? Do they worry what will happen if they don't bring half their house with them? Do they freak out if they forget something and then have to figure out where to get it in a foreign place? I have no idea, but what I do know is that not having all your creature comforts is part of the wonderful things about travel. Bring the bare minimum of stuff you need to be comfortable and feel free from your other belongings. 

In the title photo, you can see me with all of our stuff for a 1-week trip, and we've taken that bag for longer trips, too. That's not just my stuff, that's our stuff. I don't want to bog myself down with too many bags or heavy bags or have so much from home that I never need to leave my room. The only things I brought that were not totally necessary was a bag of tea, sweeteners, oatmeal and drink packets. I could have purchased these at my destination, but they took up little space and it was more about convenience. I don't need a whole box of sleepy time tea or a huge thing of sugar/sweetener when I travel. I might need these things in transit and not everyday, so I don't want to waste money at the store buying them with my normal trip purchases (usually eggs, bread, butter, bananas and creamer).

Maybe some travelers feel like such a fish out of water when they are in a new place that they feel they need to feel like they're at home to enjoy their trip. I'm not sure. I just know that it's much easier to be comfortable in a new place, to me, if I get out and see what the locals are doing and get a lay of the land. I don't expect my destination to be like home, nor do I want it to be, otherwise, why travel at all? 

I choose some of my favorite pieces to travel with, a few pair of good shoes and a couple optional articles, like some accessories I love, a scarf, and a packable jacket I may need if it gets chilly. Enough to feel like myself, but not so much that I feel overwhelmed by everything I've packed and that it all is appropriate for the activities I have planned. I don't need a sparkly dress with me if I know I will mostly be visiting museums. I also don't need high heels for walking miles and miles everyday.

Think about what you'll be doing and not so much the "what ifs', because, chances are, you may not even get to everything on your list of things to do, much less those what if opportunities. After walking for 8 or more hours during the day, are you really going to want to put on some fancy shoes that are barely comfortable for an hour when you have just been sitting on your couch all day? Bring some flats or wedges that are cute, but go with everything you have brought with you, so you can look dressed up and not want to cut off your feet.

In lieu of a formal dress, that you may only wear once (if that), why not pack a pair of black jeans? Not only will they work for everyday wear, but can look dressy and work with any number of different tops. Of course, if you travel with an LBD that you wear during sightseeing (I have a great one from Prana), then you can dress it up with a few well-placed accessories to take it from day to night, like I did with this GoLite dress (no longer available, but this gives you a good idea on how to pack one dress for multiple activities - here's something similar).

The more you think about it, the easier it is to travel lighter and still have many of your favorite items with you on your trips so you aren't feeling so much like you're out of your element and not quite yourself. You can still have a clothes personality with fewer items. For more help on how to stretch your wardrobe, check out this post. Figure out what you absolutely can't live without - maybe it's simple and useful like your iPad, maybe it's something more basic and personal like your fuzzy slippers - and then leave the rest at home. For me, it's my laptop for work and playing games/streaming movies, warm socks or booties for the room, and a few random snacks from home.

What can't you live without when you travel? 

Why I Love Disneyland Paris So Much

The other day I read an article about how to beat Ticketmaster prices and fees and it really struck a chord with me. In case you haven't tried to buy mainstream concert tickets in the last several years, or even heard about the Taylor Swift outrage, Ticketmaster and LiveNation merged, so they now have a monopoly on most concert tickets and can charge whatever they want. It's crazy. 

So, what does any of this have to do with Disneyland? Well, I found that it's not just concerts that are worth traveling out of the U.S. for. We had plans in 2020 to go to Disney World. Obviously, you know that didn't happen. We had pushed the trip twice before we outright canceled it. We've been talking about going back, but we have a lot of feelings about the state of Florida right now. 

Those feelings aside, I had looked into theme park prices last year and figured out what an Orlando vacation would cost. Then we found great airfare rates through Play Airlines to go to Paris. Somehow, flying to Paris and going to Disneyland Paris was actually cheaper than going to Walt Disney World. Yes, I know that the parks don't exactly compare to each other, but having been to Disneyland Paris two other times, I we knew it would also be less stressful. 

For less than the price of a trip to WDW, we took a trip to Paris, with a day in Baltimore, ate some amazing food, visited museums we hadn't gotten to on previous trips, explored new parts of the city, and then split that trip with a Disney trip, where we even stayed in a Disney resort. I'm not even a little shocked that people are paying the same, or even less, to buy concert tickets in other countries, plus airfare and a whole trip around it.

Anyway, let's talk about the best things about Disneyland Paris to us:

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The castle is beautiful and there's dragon! Did you know that each Disney park has a different castle? Technically Tokyo has a fortress, but it still has the castle feel. This one features a different version of Sleeping Beauty's Castle than the one at WDW and is called Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. 

The ground floor has the obligatory shops, gorgeous ones, and the second floor, reached by a grand staircase, has beautiful stained glass, which, along with tapestries and vignettes, tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. The ceiling is brilliantly painted and it also feels like you're in the middle of the forest with those trees inside. Make sure to go outside on the balcony to get a view over Fantasyland. Nobody was out there either, but that could be because it was raining. 

If you head down the stairs, you will find yourself in the dragon's dungeon. This is where dragon Maleficent is being kept. This huge animatronic moves and blows smoke and generally feels like you're in the presence of a real animal. Somehow, there's never a ton of people down here and I'm not sure if they don't know about it or don't care, but it's a nice little area to take a break in and see something truly unique to this park. 

Around the corner, there's a nice little eating area that's tucked away behind the buildings. You'll see Cinderella's glass coach and a sweet fountain. 

I know this fountain exists in other parks, but I found this one more easily and it wasn't super crowded around it. We were the only people in the little square, so we didn't have to wait for people to move to see either of these things. It might be different when it's warm out, but this was the first time we've seen these, so I don't really know.

The Haunted Mansion is Phantom Manor here and it has a weird and awesome Wild West vibe, because in Paris, it's located in Frontierland and has a whole story about the people of the west coming to mine in the area and many didn't survive. This is a ride where you should ride it multiple times to catch all the details. I'd also suggest learning the story that goes along with it and then riding it (again). 

You think you're at the end of the land when you exit the ride, and you would be right, but head away from the rest of the park and visit Boot Hill Cemetery. If you listen closely, you can hear the deceased miners. It's a fun detail and there's almost never anyone there. It's also on a raised platform, so you get a different view of Phantom Manor and you can see all of Big Thunder Railroad.

Two other rides that can be found at other parks have their own special twist, too. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is an outdoor rollercoaster. This is one of our favorite rides, because it feels like Indiana Jones, but it's outside and it goes upside down. This is one of the first rides we head to when the park opens. You also have Hyperspace Mountain. It's pretty similar to the rides in America, except it's a true rollercoaster as well and also goes upside down.

While I could go on and on about how much I love Disneyland Paris, I'll leave you with a few bullet points:

• There is an Alice In Wonderland labyrinth and you can climb to the top of the Queen's castle and look over the whole thing.
• They still have the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
• The parks are not as popular as those in America, so they aren't as crowded. 
• You could easily do one park per day, but a 3-day park hopper ensures you don't miss out on anything or have to invest in Genie+.
• Getting from one park to the other is a short walk.
• You can get a package that includes staying at a Disneyland hotel for pretty much the same price as booking a nearby hotel or vacation rental and get free shuttle service instead of using Uber or similar transportation.
• In between Frontierland and Adventureland is a walkway with Mexican eateries and a ton of animals and people from Coco's Land of the Dead, including Dante up there. I adore that Coco's getting love, because it doesn't get enough attention over here, unless it's Halloweentime. I admit that I spent way too long oohing and ahhing over every detail.
• Paris park tickets are considerably cheaper than both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

My only con about Disneyland Paris is that the food is mostly not great. We did have good coffee everywhere and a decent order of fish and chips at Toad Hall. The food at Bistrot Chez Remy was pretty good, but the service was terrible (it could have just been our waitress though). The ambiance made it better. We ate at Captain Jack's, the equivalent of Blue Bayou inside Pirates of the Caribbean, and the food was quite underwhelming. The last time we ate there, it was delicious. I'm not sure what happened there. If you're there during a food festival, though, the kiosks sell tasty food. I would take walking around with food over a sit-down meal, plus you get to try more things that way.

I compared the same trip we took to Paris Disneyland to regular Disneyland with the same tickets and the cheapest resort and it would have cost us over twice the price and we would have only been able to do that and not had 3 extra days of vacation. So, if you're looking to take a trip and you think it's over your budget, think outside the box. We've done several international trips that have been similar or cheaper than a domestic trip. 

What is your favorite Disney (or other theme) park and what do you love most about it?